Vincent Van Gogh was born 163 years ago, on March 30th, 1853, the year in which Franklin Pierce, an abolitionist, became the 14th American President. It is also the year that Joaquin Murrieta, the Mexican Robin Hood, was killed. Murrieta and his life story were the inspiration for the character of Zorro.

Vincent was born into a well-to-do, conservative and religious family that failed to understand his moody and passionate nature. Brilliant, with anintellectual bent, Vincent was often ill and became overtly religious, committing himself to missionary work in poor and desolate mining regions in Belgium where he took to sketching people of the district. His famous painting The Potato Eaters was created during this time.

Finding his way to Paris at the age of 33, Vincent was immediately taken with the new Impressionist painting style that inspired him to begin using brightcolors in his work, especially yellows and blues. After years of physical and mental illness, Vincent died four years later in the South of France.Nearly all of what are considered his best works were done in the two years before his death in 1890 from a self inflicted gun shot wound.